anticlastic raising

I was recently asked to make one of these bangles in a specific size for Small Space. 

 

 It had certainly been a while since I'd made of these so naturally I was a little bit nervous as to whether I could still do it, whilst being 7 months pregnant no less!  

The technique used to form this type of bangle is called 'anticlastic raising', which was something I experimented with during my final year at Tafe - as I said, it had been a while.   

Luckily I had documented the process well so I had great notes to refer back to, and I had made at least 5 of these when I first finished studying for various orders and stockists so I had a bit of practice up my sleeve.

This time I decided to photo document the making, as I wanted to better express the process to anyone interested, and also to show just how involved it is!  Here's a few snapshots of my anticlastic day in the studio...

flat sheet bangle before forming

the forming starts on a hardwood specially shaped stake

before each annealing (of which there are so many) the piece is covered in a boric/borax/metho mixture to protect it from firescale...

and set on fire.  Flambé!

more forming continues, starting to take shape now

the curve is deepened now on a metal stake in at least two more stages, always annealing in between of course

here you can see the effect of the deepening of the curve and the decreasing width of the bangle

more annealing, always annealing

now forming the edges further over to form a deeper curve

flattening the egdes and working out any inconsistencies

folding the edge right over, working from each side in equal hammer strikes

closing the edge tight so the central gold ring can spin freely

almost there!

cleaning up the edges, after the ring has been soldered in.  After cleanup the oxidising and polishing and then all done :)

A rather involved process as you can see, but nice to know I can still do it after a few years!